Kansas City Chiefs' Linebacker Jovan Belcher had a blood-alcohol level of more than twice the legal limit at the time he shot and killed his girlfriend shortly before taking his own life on Dec. 1, according to an autopsy report.
The medical examiner's office said Belcher's blood-alcohol level was 0.17 percent in the
final hours of his life, at the time of the murder-suicide. The legal limit for Missouri drivers is .08 percent.
The recently released report raises new questions of whether police dealt with the 25-year-old NFL player in an appropriate manner when, just hours before he killed Kasandra Perkins, 22, and himself, they found him sleeping in his Bentley outside another woman's apartment.
After officers found Belcher sleeping in his idling car they told him to remove the keys from the ignition and go inside the apartment. Usually when intoxicated people are found in cars with motors running, they are arrested and charged with driving under the influence.
According to a police report, Belcher "initially displayed possible signs of being under the influence [asleep and disoriented]." The report went on to say that several minutes after waking up, Belcher's "demeanor and communication became more fluid and coherent." Police claim that they did not smell alcohol on Belcher at the time of the encounter and that there no signs of his being "violent or emotionally unstable."
Several hours after entering the woman's apartment, Belcher drove to his home where he argued with Perkins before shooting her in the neck, chest, abdomen, hip, back, leg and hand.
According to an autopsy report, the bullets penetrated Perkins’ lung, liver, spleen and kidney. Perkin's was the mother of Belcher's 3-month-old child.
Belcher then drove to Arrowhead Stadium, 10 minutes away from his house, where he shot himself in the head in front of the football team's coach and general manager.
In the wake of the shooting, sports commentator
Bob Costas delivered an gun control rant, and there were reports of
NFL players surrendering their guns.
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